bird: Meaning and Definition of

bird

Pronunciation: (bûrd), [key]
— n.
  1. any warm-blooded vertebrate of the class Aves, having a body covered with feathers, forelimbs modified into wings, scaly legs, a beak, and no teeth, and bearing young in a hard-shelled egg.
  2. a fowl or game bird.
    1. Seeclay pigeon.
    2. a shuttlecock.
  3. a person, esp. one having some peculiarity: He's a queer bird.
  4. an aircraft, spacecraft, or guided missile.
  5. a thin piece of meat, poultry, or fish rolled around a stuffing and braised: veal birds.
  6. (in hunting) a bobwhite.
  7. a girl or young woman.
  8. the young of any fowl.
  9. a secret source of information: A little bird told me that today is your birthday.
  10. a thing possessed in fact as opposed to a thing about which one speculates: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
  11. people with interests, opinions, or backgrounds in common: Birds of a feather flock together.
  12. to eat sparingly: She couldn't understand why she failed to lose weight when she was, as she said, eating like a bird.
  13. useless or worthless; not to be taken seriously: Their opinions on art are for the birds. That pep rally is for the birds.
  14. to achieve two aims with a single effort: She killed two birds with one stone by shopping and visiting the museum on the same trip.
  15. He got the bird when he came out on stage.
    1. disapproval, as of a performance, by hissing, booing, etc.:He got the bird when he came out on stage.
    2. scoffing or ridicule:He was trying to be serious, but we all gave him the bird.
    3. an obscene gesture of contempt made by raising the middle finger.
  16. basic information about sex and reproduction: It was time to talk to the boy about the birds and the bees.
—v.i.
  1. to catch or shoot birds.
  2. to bird-watch.

Bird

Pronunciation: (bûrd), [key]
  1. born 1956, U.S. basketball player.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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